Although growth stock picks can be highly volatile, they can make good long-term investments. They may be well-known stars or quiet gems, but they do share one common attribute—they are growing at a higher-than-average rate within their industry, or within the market as a whole, and could keep growing for years or decades.
And keep in mind that we focus on growth stocks, which have a good long-term history and favourable prospects. We downplay momentum stocks that tend to attract many investors simply because they are moving faster than the market averages, but are liable to fall sharply when their momentum fades.
There’s room for growth stock investing in your portfolio, but make sure you follow our TSI Network three-part Successful Investor strategy for your overall portfolio:
- Invest mainly in well-established companies;
- Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; Utilities);
- Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.
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Newmont sells its gold at the market rate instead of through hedging contracts that lock in prices. This policy has helped it take full advantage of rising gold: its average realized gold price jumped 124.1%, from $697 an ounce in 2007 to $1,562 in 2011.
Lack of hedges unleashed earnings
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The company is doing a good job of selling its Creative Cloud package of photo-editing and desktop-publishing programs as a subscription service instead of a one-time purchase. Subscription revenue jumped 50.9% in the quarter, and now accounts for 16% of its overall revenue, up from 11% a year earlier. Adobe still gets 75% of its revenue from direct software sales. The remaining 9% comes from services and support.
Earnings rose 6.7%, to $291.2 million from $272.8 million. Earnings per share rose 5.5%, to $0.58 from $0.55, on more shares outstanding. These figures exclude several unusual items, such as restructuring charges and gains on investment sales.
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On top of used goods, the company is also selling more merchandise from retailers. That’s helping it compete with Amazon.com. Right now, sales of new items at fixed prices account for over 60% of eBay’s total transactions.
The company also operates several other highly popular websites, including StubHub (live event ticket sales), Shopping.com (comparison shopping) and Rent.com (apartment and house rentals). In addition, it has local websites that sell classified advertising in over 1,000 cities. In all, eBay’s websites provide 54% of its revenue.
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The company also increased its quarterly dividend by 3.0%, to $0.515 a share from $0.50. The new annual rate of $2.06 yields 4.5%.
Verizon is a buy.
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Even so, Texas Instruments continues to do a good job of controlling its costs. That let the company raise its quarterly dividend by 23.5%, to $0.21 a share from $0.17. The new annual rate of $0.84 yields 3.0%.
Texas Instruments is a buy.
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However, the company is facing stronger competition from bigger companies like IBM and Oracle. That could force it to lower its prices, which would hurt its profit margins.
Teradata is a hold.
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Demand for the company’s paints has moved up as the U.S. housing market continues to recover. That’s making it easier for Sherwin to increase its prices to cover its rising raw material costs (the company uses oil to make its paint). However, the stock has gained 92% in the past year, and now trades at a high 22.9 times Sherwin’s projected 2012 earnings of $6.38 a share.
Sherwin-Williams is a hold.
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In the three months ended June 30, 2012, the company’s earnings rose 30.7%, to $26.5 million from $20.3 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 32.3%, to $0.41 from $0.31, on fewer shares outstanding. If you exclude unusual items, such as a writedown of obsolete computer software, Diebold’s earnings per share would have risen 11.4%, to $0.49 from $0.44.
Revenue rose 12.2%, to $743.2 million from $662.4 million. That’s mainly because the company continues to see strong demand for ATMs from banks in North and South America. That’s helping it offset weaker sales in Europe. Sales in Asia were flat.
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NCR is benefiting from its $1.2-billion purchase of Radiant Systems Inc. in August 2011. Radiant makes point-of-sale terminals and self-serve kiosks for hotels, restaurants and gas stations. NCR also sold its struggling DVD-rental kiosk business for $100 million. These moves pushed up NCR’s revenue by 10.8% in the second quarter of 2012, to $1.4 billion from $1.3 billion a year earlier. Earnings jumped 48.9%, to $67 million, or $0.41 a share, from $45 million, or $0.28.
The stock is up nearly 40% since the start of 2012. Even so, it trades at just 9.4 times the $2.46 a share that NCR will probably earn in 2012.
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New rides and attractions are helping Cedar Fair draw more visitors to its 11 amusement parks and seven water parks. Overall attendance rose 1%, while average spending per guest gained 4%. The partnership still plans to raise its annual distribution rate from $1.60 a unit (4.8% yield) in 2012 to $2.00 (6.1% yield) in 2013.
Cedar Fair is a buy.
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